The Labor enquirer., 1887-05-14


ssty' and dishonor was especially fine.
Mayor Lee then read his address, not a
bad one' apAA2ving the merit of being
free from any npsrent bias against eth.
er the worksrAofShe idlsrs.
Presiding officer Neasham then read the
address of welcome to the g. M. W. and
committed the serious taur pas of doing
1t with his back turned to Mr.. Powderly.
Atits conclusion, wnsn Mr.. Powderly
arose to speak, 1t was some moments be
fore he recovered from the natural en-
barrassment occasioned by this lack OF
breeding, but the audience rallied to his
support and he was soon entirely at ease.
Mr.. Powderly spokefor two hours and
spoke we'll; he is quiet talker and the
impression he created was favorable
though much lacking in expected force
and determination.
The ENQUIRER quotes some of the salient
points of his address which will be Of in
terest to its readers: N
have heard of the West and its people.
and find that the pictures have not been
overdfawn. see here spirit which I
am glad to see is also growing in the East.
Old men with young hearts, working to-
gether for a common purpose. We be-
lieve in progress, and will work hand in
hand with the young men and women in
securing the greatest good to the greatest
number. Applause.
Come back with me some fifty or sixty
years ago and see what the condition Of
things was then. The shoe shop here, the
village blacksmith shop there. / will
show you in one man hammering away
on the sole of shoe busy and contented.
l will show you forge fire and a brawny
armed blacksmith at work. will show
you the tailor with his legs crossed be-
meath him, sewing and stitching. Go
back to the same country to-day. Not
solitary shoe shop. not a solitary black
smith shop. Then you will ask me the
question: Where are theys
All these men have been called in from
the village blacksmith shop, the Village
shoe shop, the village tailor shop, and
they have been placed side by side with
each other. Here is one shoe shop with
1000 employees, and another with 1000.
The tailoring shops Of the country show
like results. In the old days when Tom
Jones left his measure for pair of shoes
the man who made the shoes put on the
uppers and soles, he heeled them, he
stitched them, he cut the eyelets. The
man buys shoe nowadays and takes an
article which sixty men have worked upon.
A tailor may be still the ninth part Of a
man, but II this be so, the shoemaker is
only the sixty-seventh part of man.
Laughter and applause. But out of
this new arrangement Of things has come
one thing. The men congregated in that
way in these big shops, learned lesson.
They learned that capital had organized.
And when these workingmen met together
and discussed their condition, was it any
thing but natural that they should form
an organization of labor. Men in other
trades organized as we'll as the shoemaker.
Then in the year 1859, we saw an organi-
zation formed, remember it, though
was not old enough to belong to it, which
was known as the Machinists and Black
smiths union. That organization lived
through the war and at the end of that
fearful struggle, people faced other
questions.
The soldiers who had fought for lib erty
and all who had participated in that great
struggle, whether they took of the blue
or the gray, went back to homes where
they no longer found place to earn their
daily bread as before. You will find that
they had accomplished something grand,
something noble, they had preserved the
union, they had broken the shackles from
the limbs of four millions of human
beings. Great applause. Up from the
house Of bondage these men walked into
liberty, erect, proud and free men. But
had all been accomplished! / have since
that time seen the men whose limbs were
freed from the shackles, bought, in their
ignorance, for l. cents day. and | have
seen the men who fought for their free.
dom turned out to make room for them.
I have seen all this, and I have asked
myself the question, Is /, not time for
me to be an anarchist. Murmurs Of
applause. Hold on minute. Is it not
time for me to manufacture bombs. Muir
murs of applause. Wait a minute. Is it not
time for me to fashion that most power
full OF bombs, that most deadly Of dyna-
mite, that Is not thrown from the hand,
but that goes out from the mouth, and the
lungs, and the intellect of man, and that
lightens up flame that no power on
earth will darken. Great applause.
To those who speak of the triumph of
our principles by force, would say
Live over again the scenes of the French
revolution and you will come to see what
history has seen. See the heads of the
men who erected the guillotine fall from
that instrument The French revolution
may have been great movement for
liberty, but the grand lesson has gone
from the minds of the people. Therefore
| say any revolution that is good must be
one which must remain. in the minds of
the people,
The day to throw that bomb is when the
people Of the country select their own
men to preside over affairs In ofhce.
~ have never betrayed the secrets
of my ord.r. [Applause. When held
nv interview with Cardinal Gibbons and
other great men of my church, l never
betrayed any secret, and these gentlemen
never asked me to betray any. lApplause.J
/ said our organization believes that GER
tain systems are wrong, and We wish TO
overthrow them. Wen overthrow them
without harming the hair of any man or
any woman's head or the shedding OF one